| Historical notes: | In 1820, Governor Macquarie provided a grant of 190 acres (77 hectares) of land to Captain John Piper. The grant was subsequently named the Point Piper Estate.
The estate was later sold by Piper in sections: the land known as ‘Point Piper’ was sold to Daniel Cooper, ‘Vaucluse’ was sold to William Wentworth, and ‘Bellevue Hill’, ‘Rose Bay’ and parts of ‘Double Bay’ were sold to the firm Cooper and Levy.
On Daniel Cooper’s death in 1853, the Point Piper Estate passed to his nephew, Sir Daniel Cooper, who sold remaining portions of the land facing the harbour below the ridges of Bellevue Hill.
On 27 May 1858, John Fairfax (1804–1877) purchased a seven-acre leasehold fronting Ginahgulla and Victoria Roads. This is where, in 1858, he was to complete the house known as ‘Ginahgulla’, later to become ‘Fairfax House’. The land was adjacent to a four-acre leasehold in Kambala Road purchased by his nephew, Alfred Fairfax, some months earlier.
William Weaver and William Kemp designed the family home Ginahgulla for John Fairfax and his wife Sarah Fairfax (1808–1875) and their children.
John Fairfax was the co-founder of the Sydney Morning Herald in 1841 and its sole- proprietor from 1853. He made a significant contribution to the Australian media: ‘John Fairfax & Sons’ and then ‘John Fairfax Holdings’ would remain in Fairfax family control until the 1990s. John Fairfax also contributed to public life as a philanthropist and arts patron.
Tenders were called for the construction of the house in the Sydney Morning Herald on 22 October 1857.
To Masons and Builders – Tenders required for the erection of a House at Bellevue Hills [sic] for John Fairfax, Esq. Plans and specifications may be seen, and all particulars ascertained, on application to the undersigned, to whom tenders are to be addressed, on or before SATURDAY, 31st instant. Separate tenders will be accepted for Masonry only. The Proprietor will not bind himself to accept the lowest or any tender.
WEAVER and KEMP, architects 42 Pitt Street.
The house was one the first projects of the joint private practice of William Weaver (1828–1868) and William Kemp (1831–1898). Presumably, a Fairfax family connection aided the commission—William Kemp was the younger brother of Charles Kemp with whom John Fairfax had been proprietor of the Sydney Herald, later renamed The Sydney Morning Herald.
In 1857, after resigning from positions they held with the Colonial Architect’s Office, the two architects set up a joint practice known as ‘Weaver and Kemp’, with an office in Pitt Street Sydney. Other known surviving work by the firm include St John’s Church at Mudgee (designed in 1858) and additions to St Mary’s Church in Balmain (designed in 1859).
Ginahgulla was completed and occupied in 1858 and, from that time until 1945, it provided a comfortable home for three generations of the Fairfax family.
Ginahgulla was sold to The Scots College in 1949, and was subsequently renamed Fairfax House in recognition of its history. The College currently uses Fairfax House as a boarding house for senior students. A residence for the housemaster and family has been created in the main house, and a small apartment for a junior staff member and family is in the former rear service wing.
Fairfax House is a largely intact two-storied sandstone building in a Gothic Revival- influenced design. The main entry to the house is via the front verandah, which opens directly into a large reception room leading to a small stair hall from where the remaining ground floor and upper floor rooms can be accessed. An important decorative internal feature is the elaborately painted ceiling of the central ground floor student dormitory, formerly the drawing room.
The house includes a fine Gothic Revival wing that was added to the eastern side by c. 1863. This was formerly the dining room and is now a multi-purpose room. The added wing was constructed of brick with stuccoed exterior and sandstone door and window surrounds. The architect of the additional wing is likely to have been William Kemp, who by that time had formed his own practice.
Two further wings are attached to the rear of the house. These provided for kitchen and washing facilities, and spaces for the servants. There are also separate brick additions at the rear, including a two-storied brick stables.
THE GROUNDS
The extent of the site was originally from Victoria Road through to Kambala Road on the west. There was most likely a gatehouse at the Kambala Road entrance, which was occupied by John Fairfax’s nephew Alfred Fairfax and his wife Louisa. They sold that part of the property in 1882 to Charles Burton Fairfax. Charles Fairfax built a new house there that he named ‘Caerleon’, and it remains today as private home. By the early 1880s, the driveway to Fairfax House was changed to its present position off Ginahgulla Road, resulting in the loss of the earlier carriage loop drive adjacent to the house entrance.
Significant early landscaping survives today in the remnant gardens. Michael Guilfoyle, who owned a nursery and landscaping business in Double Bay, is reported to have provided the plantings and is also likely to have landscaped the grounds. Guilfoyle’s son William was later to become one of Australia’s foremost landscape architects.
The gardens were very important to the Fairfax family over their time living at Ginahgulla. In his memoir, James Fairfax described Ginahgulla's marvellous Victorian garden as a truly idyllic setting to grow up in in the 1930s (Fairfax, JO 1991).
Ginahgulla was sited high on the lot with commanding views over Sydney Harbour and the foreshores to the north and east. The stables and yards occupied the low, eastern part of the site, and a large paddock on the west was reserved for house cows.
THE SCOTS COLLEGE
In 1948, The Scots College was in need of a new boarding house to generate revenue and provide places for day students waiting to become boarders. The Church Trustees agreed to purchase Ginahgulla and to rename it Fairfax House in honour of its former owners. The Fairfax family formally handed over the property on 9 December 1949, and it was opened as a house for boarders at a ceremony on 7 February 1950.
Construction of a sports oval in the eastern part of the grounds was an early change made by the College. This involved destruction of gardens and paths, and the loss of many mature trees in the eastern part of the grounds.
In 1982, a new two-storey dormitory block was constructed on the rear south side of the service courtyard where early structures stood. One of these structures, a brick and stone two- story building at the west end, was incorporated into the new wing. Another, a freestanding weatherboard billiard room, was demolished (John Oultram, Fairfax House-The Scots College, Bellevue Hill NSW Heritage Impact Statement, October 2019). |